Bull City Lawyer offers two types of consultations – FREE and Paid.
Clients are rightfully weary of anything that has the word “Free” in the title. On this page, starting with the table below and continuing on to the explanation that follows, we have provided an explanation of what our free consultation includes, and what sorts of things a paid consultation includes. When you are scheduling these consultations, we will always ask you whether you wish to schedule one or the other, and you will never be charged without your permission.
Free Consultation
When should you use a free consultation?
Bull City Lawyer’s free consultation is a way for you to find out if you need to hire a lawyer, without having to pay out of pocket for that privilege. This applies to situations where you think you have a problem, or you think there is a solution, but you’re not sure either how to define the problem or to locate a solution – a quick 10-15 min phone call with our lawyers will save you hours of worrying and Googling.
A free consultation is also automatically given to anyone calling with a legal emergency (ex. You or your family member has been arrested by ICE and is in immediate danger of being deported; ex 2. You just found out your business is being sued for a million dollars for copyright infringement).
How will a free consultation help you?
The scope of that free consultation is necessarily limited to letting you understand your immigration options. But this is actually very helpful for most people. Often there are more options available than you may be aware of. For instance, you may have gone through Bull City Lawyer’s naturalization checklist program and found a message telling you that you are likely not eligible for naturalization based on the answers you provided; in truth, this does not always mean that you may not have other immigration options available to you, like immigrant or non-immigrant status visas, or green cards, each of which come in many flavors and categories.
Beyond your legal options, Bull City Lawyer’s free consultation will give you a chance to learn about our other legal services, retaining procedure, and the estimated costs of your matter. In other words, it will help you determine whether you will retain us to handle your case or not.
How long will a free consultation last?
Owing to the volume of costs and the cost of Bull City Lawyer’s time, these consultations are usually limited to between 10 and 15 minutes. But this is more than enough time to let the client know about potential available options for their immigration problem, as well as the potential costs of representation should they choose to take on Bull City Lawyer as their attorney representative.
Will my privacy be respected, even though the consultation is free?
As a real law firm, we are ethically bound not to disclose information of anyone we work with to third parties – that’s already more than most corporations that are not law firms can say. We also provide attorney-client privilege protections in cases where we enter into an attorney-client relationship with those we talk to. For the free consultations, owing to the general nature of the relationship, and the fact that the consultation is free, we do not enter into an attorney-client relationship with those we talk to.
Paid Consultation
When should you use a paid consultation?
First, if you know the nature of your problem, and you know exactly what sort of help you need from Bull City Lawyer, then this is most appropriately handle through a paid consultation. As an example, if you only know that you need to extend your visa, but don’t know how, then use our free consultation service to find out about some options. If however, you know you need an HB-1 visa, and you know why you need it, then please sign up for a paid consultation.
Can I call or email to find out if I need to set up a paid consultation?
YES. In fact, we encourage you to reach out if you’re not sure whether your matter is best handled through a free or a paid consultation.
How will a paid consultation help you?
A paid consultation turns you into a client of the Bull City Lawyer law firm. From the moment that you get on the phone with us, or come through our office doors to have your consultation, we will work as diligently as possible, and as quickly as possible, to get your matter settled. If you have a solvable problem, a paid consultation will give our lawyers the chance to diagnose the problem, and then, after the consultation is over, our lawyers will go back and research, at no additional charge, possible solutions for you. After that research we will come back to you with a plan of action that you can accept or deny.
How long will a paid consultation last?
We schedule in half-hour (30 minute) blocks, and will schedule up to a two hour consultation. You can decide what length is best for you by setting up an initial free consultation (another great reason to use a free consultation!). The consultation fee is paid up-front, and the money is held in trust (learn about law firm trust accounts here) until the consultation with us occurs. If your consultation lasts at least thirty minutes less than the scheduled time, we will refund you 50% of the price for the unused block of time.
How much does a paid consultation cost?
The initial consultation is $100.00.
